12000 per year get hospital infections in Pennsylvania

[Celebration]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/13/AR2005071300272.html

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- More than 11,600 patients contracted infections during hospital stays in Pennsylvania last year _ and nearly 1,800 of them died, according to a new report by a state agency that tracks health care trends.

Pennsylvania is one of at least a half-dozen states that require hospitals to report information on infections, and it is the first state to publicize its findings. Supporters of the reporting requirement have said collecting and analyzing the data would help hospitals improve cleanliness, potentially reducing both the number of infections that patients pick up and the cost of health insurance.

Hospital-acquired infections in Pennsylvania added $2 billion to hospital costs and extended hospital stays by 205,000 days last year, according to the report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.

"The deaths associated with those patients and the costs associated with those patients are astounding," said Marc P. Volavka, the council's executive director. "These numbers, even on their own, stand as a clarion cry to take action

[Richard Steele]

1. This is a HUGE problem everywhere, and CorporateMedInc hides it!

PA is not the worst, but merely the FIRST to release the facts to the public.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

2. Let's short-staff and underpay nurses while spending millions on computers

The federal gov't is handing out millions of dollars for healthcare information systems "to save patient lives" but do they ever give this kind of money to increase nurse's salaries or encourage enrollment into nursing?!?!?!

When nurses are stretched too thin, bad things happen...

[Divernan]

4. Pennsylvania Repub. Legislature Screws Nurses & Patients Yet Again

After YEARS of legislative hearings around the state to investigate the problems of nurses being overworked to the point that they are quitting the profession, the Repub. leadership in the PA House of Representatives, (after years of blocking actions at the behest of lobbyists for hospitals/health insurers), surprised the Dems by offering to bring to a vote a bill that would stop the forced overtime of nurses.

The situation is that after increasing the nurses' patient loads, and only allowing the critically ill to stay in the hospitals (the nurses have more patients to care for and those patients are all far sicker than used to be the case), the hospitals were firing nurses who refused to work back-to-back double shifts. You can imagine how the quality of care diminishes when a nurse is forced to work 16 hours straight. After several weeks of back and forth negotiating, the Repubs let the bill die. They didn't give a damn about the nurses' welfare, or that of the patients of those nurses. They were using it as a lever to force the
Governor to capitulate on a lot of other budget issues. You will find that when rich people have to be hospitalized, they routinely hire round-the-clock private nurses to care for them. I was forced to do this for my Mom (and we're not rich) when she fell and broke her hip and there were not enough nurses or nurses aids to take care of the patients at her hospital. I learned that there were many, many private nurses or nurses aids with patients.

[Divernan]

3. And the patients are getting stuck with all the related costs

My ex had back surgery and got 1 of these infections last year in Pennsylvania. He was on intravenous antibiotics for nearly a year and had to get two more surgeries when the original surgical site did not heal. He couldn't work, of course, and could not even sit up long enough to go to a restaurant for a meal for over six months. He has now recovered to the point that he has just as much pain as he did BEFORE the original surgery. Ah the wonders of modern medicine.

And of course, the hospital and surgeon and all the other medical care providers continued to bill him and his insurer for all these costs resulting from the infection he picked up in the hospital. He was in a small town hospital in Greensburg, PA, and when our two daughters finally pressured him to go to a university teaching hospital and well-known surgeon in PIttsburgh, that new doctor defended the original surgeon and hospital, saying that these infections are being picked up in ALL hospitals

[oscar111]

5. NEED comparison with France, best health in world

france is ranked as best.

what's their rate for hosp infections?

this would be the needed stat to put our rate in perspective.

PS what is that latin word for doc-caused illnesses?